BOAT INSURACE!!!

[Florin {VACATIONER}]

Well, we've finally got it. For the ones who are looking to get insurance on the boat, here's how we've done it. Barb called pretty much all the brokers in the phone book with no success. No-one wanted to touch a home built with a 10' pole.

I just hapened to know this broker guy aquaintance of mine and I brought it up over a pint of beer last week. He said he could probably do it for he's been in the insurance business forever and a day.

He called yesterday and told me he found an insurance company interested in taking my hard earned money.

Western General insured my boat. The price is $366.00/year, based on $30,000.00 value of the finished product, it is an "all risk" policy and has $200.00 deductible. The caveat is that the boat insurance has to be a rider on the house policy, no big deal, we just switched our house policy with Western now.

So call your broker and ask him/her to check with western.... If they can't do it, contact me and I'll put you onto Barry and hopefully get you some coverage.

Cheers

Florin

[Frank Hagan]

Not sure how the laws work in Canada, Forin, but here in California, over-insuring something doesn't get you more money when you collect. The value of a Vacationer is, at most, the cost of the materials for insurance purposes. Your time is not counted.

A Vacationer has, at most, a $10,000 value when new. After its a couple of years old, its then calculated at resale value ... and you are talking about $500 - $1000. Not worth insuring, really.

Liability is another issue. My homeowner's insurance policy will cover me for liability in case I cause damage to someone else's property when I'm in a sailboat under a certain size with a motor under a certain size. So my regular homeowner's insurance will protect me if I do get to "ramming speed" and punch a hole in one of those expensive fiberglass boats out there! When I'm towing it, my auto insurance covers the liability (that was a $5 rider, I think).

[High C]

Yeah Florin, that sounds like a horrific rate to me. I only pay about $60 more than that for my 30 foot glass boat, and we live in a high risk hurricane area.

Check your homeowner's policy carefully to see if there's any liability coverage already there for small boats. There is with my State Farm policy. As for that $30,000 figure, that's nowhere near what you'd actually get in a total loss, maybe a few thou.

It may be too late for this year, but do a little homework for the future. I think you're paying an awful lot for very little coverage you may not need at all.

[High C]

:oops:

[Florin {VACATIONER}]

I've already checked that and there's no provision for small boat in the policy... although this is no small boat, and there's more than just a few "thou" in receipts I already have for this boat. As it stands right now the boat is about 80% finished (or 20%) unfinished and 50% to go, and I wanted to have some sort of coverage for it sitting in the garage in case anything happens. The sum I mentioned is Canadian $... and not woth anywhere near as much as the US $.

In any case, I've seen and heard of too many people who have lost property in fires and had no insurance. If I can at least recover the losses for the materials and a few "thou" for my labour is far beter than not getting anything at all. When finished, it will get appraised and the true value will then be insured.

Thanks

Florin

[Frank Hagan]

Well, the rates may not be much different even if you're insuring it for $12,000 to $18,000 CD, because a lot of insurance companies have a set rate that they will write a policy on no matter the cost. And your laws could be completely different than ours anyway (in fact, each of our States has different insurance laws).

I have heard that many of the homeowner's insurance policies here are now removing damage to parked vehicles and boats, campers, etc. stored at the house.